SANDUSKY, Ohio – The Bass Pro Tour concludes its regular season next week with a tournament on Lake Erie, Aug. 6-9, as Suzuki Marine Stage 7 Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches brings the league’s high-intensity, every-fish-counts format to Ohio.
Hosted by Shores & Islands Ohio, the four-day event will feature 51 of the world’s top professional anglers competing for a $125,000 top prize and their share of a $600,000 purse, along with valuable Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for REDCREST 2027 – the Bass Pro Tour championship – and the Kubota Heavy Hitters all-star event. Competition will unfold under MLF’s catch, weigh, immediate-release format, where every bass over the 2-pound minimum counts and SCORETRACKER® – the MLF live leaderboard – keeps the pressure on throughout the day.
“There’s something special about seeing the best anglers in the world compete on waters that have earned the respect of fishermen everywhere,” said Jon Limber, Sports Tourism Manager, Shores & Islands Ohio. “Hosting the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour on Lake Erie is an incredible opportunity to showcase not only one of the world’s premier bass fisheries, but also the welcoming communities, waterfront experiences and outdoor recreation that define Shores & Islands Ohio. We look forward to welcoming competitors and fans from across the country and inviting them to experience the excitement of professional bass fishing while discovering why so many people return to the Shores & Islands Ohio region, year after year.”
The Lake Erie field is stacked with championship pedigree, led by reigning Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year and REDCREST 2026 champion Jacob Wheeler and three-time REDCREST champion Dustin Connell. Joining them are a host of proven winners and fan favorites, including Matt Becker, Zack Birge and Ott DeFoe.
While Lake Erie has often served as an option for anglers in tournaments launching from the Detroit River, not many multi-day events have been held solely on Erie through the years. Only once has a national tournament launched on Lake Erie – the 2020 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Super Tournament, which Justin Lucas won. At that event, anglers were allowed to access the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair, but this time the field will be confined to roughly the western third of Erie itself.
The 2020 Super Tournament featured a stout, 187-boat field, and five of the top seven finishers will compete in this event. Lucas edged Wheeler by 1 ounce for the win, while Spencer Shuffield, Alton Jones Jr. and David Dudley finished fifth through seventh, respectively. There’s only one home-state angler in the field for this event – Cole Floyd – although Fletcher Shryock spent most of his life in Ohio before relocating to Lake Guntersville.
Ohio native Floyd of Leesburg has been making trips to Lake Erie since he was a kid, giving him a familiarity with one of the country’s most expansive fisheries. While he expects anglers to spread across the massive playing field, Floyd said he believes the Bass Pro Tour’s every-fish-counts format will create opportunities for both smallmouth and largemouth specialists.
“It’s a massive body of water so there’s a ton of fishable water within the boundary limits of this event and pretty much everything will be in play on that lake,” Floyd said. “I’ve fished there ever since I was little, so I know the lake pretty good.
“My plan is to focus on largemouth, and I feel like they are going to be a big player in this tournament and a lot of guys will do really well largemouth fishing,” Floyd continued. “But at the end of the day, I really feel like there’s a good chance that smallmouth could end up winning it.”
Pro Spencer Shuffield of Hot Springs, Arkansas, won a 2024 MLF Team Series event alongside Becker in Presque Isle Bay on Lake Erie, and said he is eager to make the annual trip north, where cooler temperatures and world-class fishing typically produce some of the season’s most exciting competition. After spending six days scouting Lake Erie last summer, Shuffield said he also expects anglers to capitalize on both smallmouth and largemouth, but believes brown fish will ultimately dominate the leaderboard.
“Anytime we go north, the fishing’s always incredible,” Shuffield said. “Whether you’re fishing for smallmouth or largemouth, you’re going to be able to catch plenty of them. That’s really what I’m most looking forward to.”
Shuffield said the unique layout of Lake Erie will force competitors to make critical strategic decisions, as the most productive smallmouth and largemouth waters are separated by long runs that could cost valuable fishing time.
“I think it’s predominantly going to be dominated with smallmouth,” Shuffield said. “There’ll be a couple guys who do really well strictly largemouth fishing, but for most of the field it’s going to be kind of a 50-50 deal, with guys relying heavily on smallmouth, especially during the ‘Scope period.”
Unlike many fisheries where anglers can quickly transition between patterns, Shuffield said Lake Erie’s geography makes chasing both species in the same day a risky proposition.
“The best largemouth area I found was 50 miles away from the best traditional smallmouth fishing,” Shuffield said. “Running that far on Lake Erie could take two and a half hours, so you’re giving up an entire period without making a catch just to switch from one species to the other.”
Because of those lengthy runs, Shuffield expects anglers to face a difficult choice between committing to one species or sacrificing valuable fishing time to chase both.
“I think it’ll take around 80 pounds to make the Knockout Round,” Shuffield said. “There’ll be some guys that have more than 100 pounds over two days, probably multiple guys, but I think a lot of anglers are going to lose fishing time unless they commit to one species.”
Shuffield said he expects to see anglers targeting smallmouth with drop-shot rigs, Ned rigs and jerkbaits, and largemouth with frogs, ChatterBaits, Texas rigs and little, shallow-running crankbaits.
Anglers will arrive each morning starting at 5:45 a.m. ET to Shelby Street Public Boat Launch, located at 101 Shelby Street in Sandusky, Ohio, with takeoff starting at 6:45 a.m. Anglers will return to Shelby Street Public Boat Launch each evening following the end of competition at 3:45 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to watch the event live online throughout the day on the MLFNOW! livestream and follow along with SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
On Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 8-9, from 3-6 p.m., MLF invites fans of all ages to the Paper District Marina, located at 611 Shoreline Drive in Sandusky, for the MLF Fan Experience & Watch Party. Fans can watch the Bass Pro Tour pros live on the MLFNOW! big screen, enjoy free food for the first 100 fans each day, enter hourly giveaways, browse MLF merchandise and the bargain bait bin, participate in a free fishing derby and casting contest, and cheer on their favorite anglers. Live music begins at 4 p.m. (Paul Bogner on Saturday and Mike Risner on Sunday) followed by Top-10 angler interviews and the trophy presentation at 5 p.m., including autographs and photos with Bass Pro Tour finalists. The first 50 kids ages 14 and under will receive a free rod and reel each day.
Suzuki Marine Stage 7 at Lake Erie Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches will feature anglers competing with a 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.
The 2026 Bass Pro Tour features a field of 51 of the best professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual Kubota Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2027 championship.
The full field of anglers will compete in the two-day Qualifying Round on Thursday and Friday. After the Qualifying Round is complete, the pro with the heaviest two-day total will advance directly to Sunday’s Championship Round. Anglers who finish second through 25th will advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining anglers compete to finish in the top nine to advance to Sunday’s Championship Round. In the Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $125,000.
The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the action live on all four days of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! will be livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
Television coverage of the Suzuki Marine Stage 7 at Lake Erie Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Oct. 3 on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
Proud sponsors of the MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing Co., B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Force, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine, Toyota, Yuengling and Zenni.
For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets at Facebook, X, Instagram, Rumble and YouTube.